美国有线新闻 CNN 澳大利亚山火肆虐 和平年代最大规模撤离启动

 

Which of these nations is composed of six states and two territories? Australia, India, Malaysia, or Mexico. Though all of these nations have states, only Australia has exactly six of them in addition to its territories.

And four of those states have been effected by bushfires. There are more than 200 of them burning in Australia which is going through a drought and still has at least two hot summer months left before the season's over. One of the blazes¹ covered 23 square miles over the weekend. That's bigger than the New York City borough² of Manhattan. In all 23,000 square miles have burned. That's more than 14 and a half million acres. Twenty-four people have been killed this fire season. And even where the flames themselves can't be seen, an ominous³ red sky hangs over the countryside.

These aren't the worst fires Australia has ever had. Those struck in 2009 killing⁴ 173 people and injuring hundreds more, but what's happening now has led to the largest peacetime evacuation in Australian history.

下列哪个国家由六个州和两个领地组成？澳大利亚、印度、马来西亚还是墨西哥？虽然上述所有国家的行政区划都有州，但只有澳大利亚有六个州和两个领地。

澳大利亚有四个州一直饱受山火的影响。目前澳大利亚有超过200起山火在燃烧，而该国正在经历干旱，而且炎热的夏季至少还要持续两个月才会结束。上周末，其中一起大火的过火面积达到23平方英里。这比纽约市曼哈顿区的面积还要大。目前共有2.3万平方英里土地被烧毁。这一面积超过1450万亩。这一火灾季已造成24人死亡。即使火焰本身无法看到，但可以看到不祥的红色天空笼罩在乡村上方。

这并不是澳大利亚史上最严重的火灾。2009年发生的火灾导致173人死亡，数百人受伤，但目前燃烧的大火引发了澳大利亚史上规模最大的和平时期撤离行动。

1 blazes   

地狱； 火焰( blaze的名词复数 )； 光辉； 迸发； （光或色彩等的）展现

参考例句：

• Tom's new motorbike goes like blazes. 汤姆的新摩托车疾驶如飞。
• Scientists have correlated the rampant blazes with wamer temperatures and earlier snowmelt. 科学家们把这些猖獗的大火同天气变暖以及融雪时间提前联系在一起。

2 borough   

n.享有自治权的市镇；(英)自治市镇

参考例句：

• He was slated for borough president.他被提名做自治区主席。
• That's what happened to Harry Barritt of London's Bromley borough.住在伦敦的布罗姆利自治市的哈里.巴里特就经历了此事。

3 ominous   

adj.不祥的，不吉的，预兆的，预示的

参考例句：

• Those black clouds look ominous for our picnic.那些乌云对我们的野餐来说是个不祥之兆。
• There was an ominous silence at the other end of the phone.电话那头出现了不祥的沉默。

4 killing   

n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财

参考例句：

• Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
• Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。